iStrategy 2010

OK, so it turns out I’m a Social Media conference slag. Hot on the heels of the last one, I packed my little bag and headed to Sydney for iStragegy 2010. Travelling with work is still a novelty to me, I haven’t really got that whole, jaded “Oh GOD, not Sydney AGAIN!” thing down – I was very excited to go. We stayed in the lovely Sheraton On the Park, as part of the conference, and while it was a fabulously well appointed hotel, we didn’t see much of Sydney itself at all. Next time.

The speakers were slightly more international, as you’d expect, with representatives from Microsoft and Google, as well as Australian companies like Red Balloon, Fox Sports, Commonwealth Bank, Earth Hour and Contagious Communications, to name just a few. Topics were skewed toward marketing online, as well as using social in corporates, the bit I was interested in.

I learned heaps – main points were these (your views may vary, depending on your context, etc):

No one person ‘owns’ social media in a corporate – it sits across too many disciplines. You can have people there to guide it, but it’s a team effort

Facebook and Twitter are just tactics, your approach and strategy need to be broader than just having a presence in these channels

Often social values of openness and sharing are diametrically opposed to corporate values of intellectual property and retaining information to gain commercial advantage – it’s a big leap to make to be a truly social organisation

Agencies can be hard – they’re not there every day. We need to challenge agencies to think end to end, and long term, not just by campaign; customers need the same message from us no matter what channel, ie web, social, bus shelter, mobile, video game, tv, radio, print, PR

One of the most interesting presentations was from Myspace – yes, Myspace. If you haven’t had a look at their site lately, go have a look, it’s changed loads, going from 130 logos and 170 templates to one logo and seven templates, add their agreement with Facebook mean your profile can auto-populate with your Facebook likes.They’re attempting to become first social network to turn around a huge failure. Worth a look.

Jack, for sure there is, I reckon it’s almost easier than for big bus. You’ve got a service, you’re not a dick – I mean, you could almost do a blog on how you’ve come to set up your own business, and how it’s going, people (may) want to engage with that story. And if you were sharing links, funny shiat on your Facebook or Twitter, you (may) (there’s a lot of mays) become that guy who’s really funny on Twitter and Facebook and who just so happens to fix PCs. Worth playing with anyhoo.

Thanks Simone, sadly, my duty free was all chocolate rather than piss on this trip. And yes, that’s the ‘squeaky bath’ buzzy bee, it’s pretty bad-ass.